The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Power distributors in vehicles are responsible for guaranteeing the power supply to an ever-growing number of consumers in the vehicle. Consumers in this context may be a wide variety of control devices for functions such as airbags, window openers, lighting, entertainment systems and many more. In addition, the task of safeguarding the cables to the individual consumers generally also takes place in the power distributor.
The current is typically provided from the power source to the power distributor via one single feeder terminal. This is often referred to as a clamp 30. At the same time the power distributor has a plurality “n” of outlets to the given consumers.
Circuit board-based power distributors in particular are state-of-the-art. Here, the lines to the different consumers are unbundled through a printed circuit board. The electrical components for switching the current are installed on the circuit board. The switching elements are typically relays that are attached to the circuit board and switch the connection to one or more consumer(s). The consumers themselves are connected to the circuit board via cable sets, with each cable or several cables together being connected through a particular plug to the circuit board, which contains a mating connector. The installation of a circuit board-based power distributor solution of this nature is very complex, requiring the following activities:
the power distributor must be taken from a lattice box;
the power distributor must be mounted in the vehicle;
a plurality of plugs on the wiring side must be picked from the cable set and sorted; and finally
the plugs on the wiring side must be plugged one after the other onto the power distributor.
Production times are correspondingly long.
However, one advantage of such a solution is that control electronics such as a LIN interface are more easily integrated. The control of the relays can be sorted out on the printed circuit board. However, another disadvantage in addition to the long production times is that the base surface of the power distributor must be very large, as the plug receptacles must also be accommodated on the printed circuit board in addition to the fuses. Since the printed circuit board represents the largest cost factor, this solution is correspondingly expensive.
The problem with integrating electronic components into the printed circuit board of the power distributor as given in DE102012215366 A1 is that due to the ESD-sensitive electronic components (ESD stands for electrostatic discharge), the power distributor and where applicable the entire wiring harness has to be treated as ESD-sensitive and undergo costly and complex handling in manufacture, testing and transport.
Other approaches for a power distributor are known from DE 102009029166 A1. The power distributor has a modular design, i.e. a limited number of auxiliary modules are connectable to a central module, with fuses attached to both. In addition, the central module also accommodates the switching elements. However, in this case the accommodation of control electronics is critical, for this solution does not include a printed circuit board into which the control electronics could be integrated. Therefore, the control electronics must be connected to the switching elements of the power distributor via an internal cable set of the distributor.
A power distributor according to this variant has the disadvantage that the delivery of the electronics portion in the cable set is generally not accepted by the customer, since installing the cable set with the power distributor connected to it leads to a risk of damage due to improper handling, particularly with regard to electrostatic discharge (ESD).